SAN FRANCISCO - Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago.

Under the partnership announced Thursday, the latest generation of TiVo's digital video recorders will be able to beam selections from 12,000 movies and TV shows offered through Netflix's streaming service, which must be piped over high-speed Internet connections. TiVo's DVRs will start catering to Netflix subscribers in early December.

The collaboration fulfills a promise made in 2004 when DVR pioneer TiVo and online DVD rental trailblazer Netflix set out to develop a system for delivering video directly over the Internet. But they got sidetracked after Netflix couldn't work out licensing deals with movie and TV studios.

By the time Netflix cleared the licensing hurdle and launched its Internet streaming service 21 months ago, the two companies had decided to pursue other partners.

But a reconciliation was inevitable, according to the leaders of Netflix and TiVo, whose Silicon Valley headquarters are about 18 miles apart.

"It's just a natural pairing and we are thrilled to finally be working with them," said Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive officer.

"I don't think there is any question we have gotten more frequently than, `What about TiVo and Netflix working together?'" said TiVo CEO Tom Rogers.

Coming off the first back-to-back quarterly profits in its 11-year history, TiVo is betting its ties to Netflix and other content providers like Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube will help distinguish its $299 DVRs from the generic recorders peddled by cable TV providers.

Alviso-based TiVo ended July with 3.6 million subscribers and Los Gatos-based Netflix ended with 8.7 million subscribers. The streaming service is available at no extra charge to any Netflix subscriber paying at least $8.99 per month for DVD rentals — a prerequisite that most customers meet.

TiVo will join other companies that sell devices that make it easier for Netflix's streaming service to be shown on a TV set instead of a computer.

Since Silicon Valley startup Roku Inc. introduced a $100 player tailored for Netflix's streaming service five months ago, Microsoft Corp. has agreed to tweak its video game console, the Xbox 360, so it can draw from Netflix's Internet library beginning next month. And both LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics are selling Blu-ray DVD players compatible with Netflix's streaming service.

Netflix eventually hopes to have its streaming service on dozens of devices, including TVs with built-in wireless connections to the Internet.

The growing selection of streaming devices could help boost Netflix's profits by causing subscribers to request fewer DVDs. Each DVD rental makes a round trip through the postal service that costs Netflix 84 cents, so fewer requests will lower expenses — just as management is striving to save money to offset slowing revenue growth.

Netflix still has to pay movie and TV studios licensing fees for the streaming rights, but that doesn't cost as much as mailing DVDs, said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

"Netflix has really stumbled upon something that's pretty clever," Pachter said. "It's kind of a win for everyone because the customer gets the instant gratification of watching a movie over the Internet, studios get more licensing fees and Netflix saves money."

I wasn't quite sure in which forum to put this, but this is probably the best one...

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"A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair. But no, You sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair? " -- 1776

"When you look really deep, we are all kind of shallow" -- unknown

My Countdown

Counting down to: End of the countdown clock 2102 days 11 hours 11 minutes

Damn, look at Netflix go! Time to buy stock while it's cheap again. They're just wracking up the partners: Microsoft, Roku, Samsung, LG and now Tivo.

__________________"Chuck me!""Hey, I'm Eddie. How do you like me so far?" - Keen EddieI've seen him. He's like fire, and ice, and rage. Like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and sees the turn of the univrse.

__________________
"A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair. But no, You sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair? " -- 1776

"When you look really deep, we are all kind of shallow" -- unknown

My Countdown

Counting down to: End of the countdown clock 2102 days 11 hours 11 minutes

This is cool. It's better than turning on the xbox and doing it that way. Much handier. And of course the Tivo is always on anyway, unlike the power-sucking Xbox.

I'll probably use both - Tivo for daytime movies and the Xbox for watching TV shows or whatever while waiting for buddies to come online.

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"The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid." - Livy